Nuclear Radiation in Japan

One very important consequence of the Japan earthquake from a week ago, geologically explained here on Caputo's Corner, is the threat of airborne nuclear radiation as a result of explosions of at the Fukushima Nuclear Reactor.  A mass exodus has ensued from Tokyo to escape the fallout.  This has raised several concerns about the viability of nuclear energy as an alternative to oil and fossil fuels.  Japan is a country that heavily relies on nuclear energy for their power.  Therefore, not only does a nuclear event such as this (currently rated as a 5 out of 7 on the international nuclear event seriousness scale...as was Three Mile Island) present numerous risks associated with radiation poisoning, it knocks out power to a very large portion of the population for a very long period of time. 

I am all for comprehensive R&D into all kinds of alternative sources of energy.  Nuclear power is one of many alternatives to fossil fuels.  It is clean, efficient, and as is certainly the case in Japan, reliable.  There is, of course, the risk of accidents such as this that pose very serious risks to the well-being of the population.  That being said, I feel like it is a risk worth taking.  When we think of nuclear power, events such as Three Mile Island (very close to home if you know where it is), Chernobyl, and Homer Simpson usually come to mind.  However, these are the exceptions.  Nuclear power has been around for several years, and it works.  Nowadays, nuclear power plants are constructed with several built in failsafes.  These make sure if there are accidents any fallout is contained as the plant is shut down immediately.  This isn't Sim City where the nuclear power plant always melted down 5 minutes after you built it.  Let's face it, however.  Nuclear power plants are not built with 8.9 magnitude earthquakes in mind.  Perhaps they should be, but that is a discussion for another time and place.  I'm not saying it's the best (all sources of energy have their pros and cons), but when discussing alternative energy sources, nuclear must be in the discussion, and accidents such as this, while very unfortunate, cannot take away from the fact that nuclear power is clean, viable, and efficent.  Just ask Einstein...